Okay, class, it's always good to do a little Review.
Last week's post was about Quoins-- how many of you were able to identify the quoins in the montage? If you couldn't, that's okay. This week, I've included the answers!
Lintels. These stretched across the openings of some buildings. If the weight of the stone above was not redistributed by an arch, lintels often failed.
Flying buttresses. These literally buttress the wall.
Capital, with carved volutes. One of three parts of the Classical order.
Crenelations, with spaces just big enough to shoot an arrow through.
Cornerstone. The biggest, squarest, most perfect stone is set aside to be used as a cornerstone. It must be perfect, because the rest of the building is built around it.
Quoins. Large squared off stones used to build up the corners of a masonry wall. Quoin and coin both come from a word meaning "wedge"-- because coins and quoins were tooled with special wedges. When building a rubble wall, it's especially important to use large, strong quoins on the corners, alternating the long "legs". This helps to tie the two walls together, and by alternating the legs, you prevent having long, continuous joint lines that can result in splitting and separating of the walls.
Keystone. Stone structures are not held together by mortar. They are held together by gravity. The weight of the keystone pushing down against the rest of the arch, and thus redistributing the load, is what holds the arch together. The keystone of an arch has a nice wedge shape, and is "wedged" into the top of the arch and held tightly in place by weight and friction.
Okay, that's my assignment for this week, Mrs Matlock! Sorry for the "Re-tread", but I've been working on an extra credit assignment. Here's a preview:
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